Olson High speed flash units for hummingbirds

Does anyone know where I can purchase some Olson high speed flash

units? Charles Melton (a superb hummingbird photographer) and I

would both like to know. I sent a letter to Mr. Olson a few years

ago, but never got a response. Then I heard he died a year or two

ago. Woods Electronics said they were going to manufacture these

units two years ago, but so far nothing. Are there any other sources?

I don't know if he's still alive, but a gentleman named Ralph Scott used to do an occasional program and/or judging for our photo club. Mr. Scott used one of the Olson flash units you're asking about. His inflight bird photographs were sometimes astounding. Some of his work is posted here

 

http://www.gregscott.com/rwscott/rwscott.htm

 

maybe someone associated with that site can help you.

John--I'm sending you the email address of Denver nature photographer Wendy Shattil, who uses the Olson flashes and directed me to him about three or four years ago. Perhaps she can help.

My Dad is still alive, and can be still found only in the field many summers and spring. He's also concerned about a replacement for his flash, should that be necessary, and I would like to notify him if any source is found. Below is a quote from a newsgroup post a builder in the UK who may be the closes substitute for Olsen:

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A number of people have responded to my listing regarding my source for high speed flash for hummingbirds etc. They are made in the UK, and though expensive are quite brilliant. I can attest to the quality and performance of these units having used them for some time myself, and the latest model has specifications that well exceed my own.

 

Specs:

 

1 unit can achieve f16 at 6 feet, with 100ASA film. This is REAL film speed, NOT as indicated on a flash meter, which would indicate f32. (No flash meter is fast enough to accommodate the 2 stop reciprocity failure). The reason for the reciprocity failure is the incredibly short flash duration - 40 microseconds!!! i.e. 40 millionths of a second...... The size is about 10x8x6 inches, weight of each head about 8 pounds. Operating voltage around 3kV and they recharge in less than 4 seconds. These units are built to be used!! Their robustness has been proved with an accidental drop of over 6 feet, with no ill effects at all!

 

Anyway, the guy to contact for prices and availability is:

Dr. Greg Parker, whose email is:

mobiusltd@aol.com

--------------------

If anybody buys one of his flashes, I'd like to hear his final price, and how you like it, and to see some results. Thanks. Let me know what's out there... I'm interested too, but not able to buy yet.

John,

I have done successful Hummingbird photography using Vivitar 283 flash units with vari power(VP-1) accessory to reduce the flash duration down to 1/30000th of a second. I have used total 3 vivitar 283 units to freeze their wings. The hummingbird which I photographed is Ruby Throated, which is the smallest of all hummingbirds. And, yes 283 was able to freeze their wings, which beats at an average speed of 60 beats per second.

 

Before going further I'll suggest first give a try to Vivitar 283, see if result comes to your expectations. Feel free to contact me personally in case of any question.

It's been over a year since this thread was last updated. Does anyone have any new information to add?? I'm looking for a system like the Olson Flash system, too.

 

Thanks,

J. C.

I am the Dr. Greg Parker (now Prof.)mentioned in one of the earlier replies. I have designed and built portable high-speed flash units for bird & insect photography for over 20 years now. You can see the results of using my equipment in Roy Dunn's hummingbird pictures or Andy Harmer's (U.K.) web page. I would like to get this equipment into the hands of as many enthusiasts as possible - but there is a problem - the components are expensive making the units very expensive. The only way around this problem is to volume produce. So, either I need a manufacturer who can shift volume who is willing to buy my design plus Royalties on units sold - or - a large number of users need to get together so that I could get a local manufacturer to put together say 150 units. My units are real (they exist), they are tough (my brother dropped the unit from 15 feet not 6 feet), and they are reliable (units over 15 years old are still running). It's over to you guys.

Latest update from Prof. Greg Parker. My HSF units are now being manufactured and sold by Roy Dunn who has a company, Fotronix Inc. running in the States. Roy also has "Olson lookalike" flashunits for those whose original units need replacing. Check out Roy's site on www.fotronix.com you'll also see some nice HSF Nature photography from Roy Dunn,Andy Harmer and Alan Parker. 1/04/03.

Fotonix.com has a "shell" website saying that they no longer sell the flashes. They give an email address, which I did not query. I've found a place to repair my Olson flash, meanwhile, and I'll let you know how that turns out, also, if I remember. If anybody else reading this thread has more info, I'm definitely interested in any concrete information you can provide. I'm planning to have my Olson flash appraised for insurance purposes, and "Replacement value" would depend on what's available on today's market. If "nothing" is available in this range, then I'll have to settle for something "better", if such can be found!

Roy Dunn of Fotronix is no longer manufacturing my flashgun design. I am currently in discussion with several European photographic equipment manufacturers to see if any are interested in moving into the HSF area. Two companies seem interested, but I don't think things will develop very quickly with either of them. The big players in the game seem to have absolutely no interest at all which is very strange as they would be able to enter a market with no commercial competition - and from the number of enquiries I get during a year there is certainly a market.

I will keep you informed of any developments (or not).

Regards,

Prof. Greg Parker<div></div>

My updated web page can be found at:

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/mobiusltd/myhomepage/photo.html

Regards,

Greg Parker

I was in (brief) discussion with two European flashgun manufacturers and the result was zilch! No major camera accessories manufacturer seems to be interested at all. I am therefore sticking with 10,800 second exposure photography (astrophotograhy) and will be giving the short stuff a miss.

Greg Parker<div></div>

Hi Greg et al,

 

Fotronix is no longer producing high speed flash systems, as mentioned above. In fact, Fotronix has ceased trading due to a move to California from North Carolina. My consulting company, Yoric Inc. is involved in a custom contract for an ultra-high speed flash system, but will not be producing units for the mass market.

 

As to Olsen units, all I can say is to be very, very careful when you are using them - they are inherently dangerous. Joe McDonald, for example, no longer uses his for safety reasons, nor will he sell them, for the same reason.

 

Roy Dunn

Yoric Inc.

fka Fotronix Inc.

It's my understanding that several folks who repair Olson flashes have "retired", one way or the other. Here's a CURRENT contact who did a great job repairing my Olson power supply this spring 2006:

Brent Hollister

(800) 988-7111

Holly Enterprises

15848 Rayen St.

North Hills CA 91343

Note that he recommends and can do upgrades to enhance the safety and lifetime of the flash. He did a minor modification to mine, but very honestly informed me that I didn't need most of the "typical" upgrades, and that my flash was the best built Olson flash that he's seen. This shows, in my opinion, that he's going to deal with you in a fair manner.

hi, i've come across this thread while searching for high speed flash and i noticed the specs of the greg parker unit mentioned by greg scott.<br>

40 microseconds is 1/25000s which can be achieved by flash units like the vivitar 283, when set to low output, which might be too low for most tasks. but when looking at larger units, it gets more interesting: take for example the smallest alienbees studio flash (the B400), it has 1/6400s at full output and a range of 5 f-stops. which means it has 1/204800s at 1/32 output, that's 5(!) microseconds with f/4 at 10 feet distance. <br>

to better compare it with greg parker's design, when set to 1/4 output, it has 1/25600s (40 microseconds) with f/16 at 5 feet. the output is very comparable. <br>

one problem is that for field work you need an AC power supply, which is also sold by alienbees, but rather pricey (224$ for the flash, 350$ for the "vagabond" portable power system) and heavy. but i guess to the serious photographer it can be worth it, considering that you get a versatile and portable studio flash unit as well<p>

btw: alienbees flash duraton times are "t.5" (that's the time to the falloff to 50% of peak output) i have no idea what greg parker used to measure his, but maybe he's still reading this ...

Hi there,

Yep - Greg Parker still gets messages from this one. I don't know (and haven't looked up) the units you are referring to but here's some simple physics (yee cannot break the laws of physics remember) just to provide a sanity check.

My latest units used by Alan Parker in Surfers Paradise Australia are flash duration 25us (1/40,000 second) measured at FWHM on an oscilloscope using a fast photodetector, the rating is at ISO 200 f#16 at 10 feet, and this requires 200 Joules of energy.

You just need simple scaling to check whether other units are "physically reasonable" or not. So, if you reckon that these other units give a performance similar to mine at a quarter power setting - then their full power rating must be 800 Joules. Is this correct. Somehow I really doubt it as there are severe Health & Safety restrictions on gear that stores over 200 Joules of energy, which is why mine are set at 196 Joules.

All the best,

Greg

Afterthought:

 

There is one other thing I should mention about electrolytic units. They can never give out the same power in the same time as low inductance paper units, no matter what combination of electrolytics you use. Clearly I researched all of this around 10-15 years ago when I started, as who wouldn't rather use a low voltage high capacitance capacitor rather than something running at 3,000 volts? The problem with electrolytics is the series resistance (even those with a stated "low" series resistance) - you simply cannot get the power out of electrolytics quickly enough, even if you start using thyristor control to cut off early in the pulse. It all gets into a big catch 22, you go for bigger and bigger electrolytics (which have bigger and bigger series resistance) and you cut back to lower and lower powers to try and get the speed. It just doesn't work!

So with these other units I would do the following:

1) Look at the light output pulse on an oscilloscope with a fast photodetector on the quarter power setting and see what the FWHM speed is.

2) Check what the full power rating of the capacitor is.

 

I know from the physics of electrolytic versus paper capacitors that you cannot get anywhere near my unit specs using any combination of electrolytics you like.

Regards,

Greg

I have just checked the Alien Bees site and they are beautifully made studio units without a doubt! Also, for what you're getting the price is superb.

Being studio (rather than portable gear like mine) you have the luxury of mains power, which means charging up thumping great capacitors is relatively straightforward. It also means that having more than 200 Joules stored energy is somewhat less of risk than being caught outside in a rainstorm with your HSF kit fully charged.

I still maintain however that you will not be able to get the performance available from my units. If someone does some measurements on these electrolytic units and finds that in fact they can match mine in performance - I will be very interested indeed - so please let me know if they do.

One other thing I don't understand seeing these units is the lower power settings. If the bleeder resistors on the front are for when you change power output, I would imaging this means you simply charge the capacitor up to a lower voltage - I couldn't see any thyristor cut-off circuitry. If this is the case, then you will not get a faster pulse with lower energies as the capacitance stays the same and you have lowered the driving force (the voltage) to push the current through the tube. So I really don't understand at all how going to quarter power will give you anything faster than a full power pulse. Once again, if anyone knows the answer to this I'd really like to know!

All the best,

Greg Parker

Sorry everyone! My last post on this one. I've just seen where the confusion has arisen. I think you'll find by looking at the Alien Bees site that indeed there is a 5 f-stop change, but this does not have any bearing on the light pulse duration, this is simply changing the power in the light pulse (I imagine by simply changing the charge-up voltage on the capacitor), so there is no mention of 5us pulses on the site (and I would have been amazed if there had been).

You had me going there for a minute!!!

Greg

sorry greg, i was of the impression that all flash units use flash duration to control the output (at least all my hotshoe units do that). and especially the fact that the durations of the alienbees at max output increase with the max power of the different units, made me think that this also applies for studio strobes. but i just made some testshots, which confirmed that you are correct (same blur over the whole output range). sorry for the confusion, next time i'll test my theories before posting them >_< (i was just trying to build a trigger and wanted to do the testing tomorrow)

Absolutely no problem at all! I am glad you made me think about this subject again - and you never know, the way technology improves, we may get electrolytics giving the same performance as my units within the next 20 years (?).

All the best,

Greg

Just to show that the units in Surfers are still running - here's a photo my brother sent to me this morning.

Greg<div></div>

Mr.Greg Parker I may be interested in your flashes, if price is not extermely high, pl tell price of 3 units.

Greg replied to my email: Not making these flashes any more. Price per unit around 1500/-Sterling Pounds.

Other thread shows that digital cameras can be synced for any speed with non dedicated manual flashes. try that also.

Due to continuing enquiries (rate of about 2 per month) I felt it necessary to confirm my position re HSF. I am not making any high-speed flash units at present and do not intend making any in the future. I would consider making a batch of units if there was an order for at least 50 (so a bunch of people would have to pool together). The cost of a single unit would be around 1500 pounds sterling plus VAT at 17.5%.

I am not willing to sell the plans to build HSF as I am worried that someone without my 25 years of know-how will do themselves a serious mischief with the very high voltages and stored energies involved.

Regards,

Greg Parker